Temple Counting On Carey To Erase Sting Of Diaz Fiasco

Less than a month after Manny Diaz was introduced as Temple football coach, then abruptly left 17 days later to take the Miami job, it's Rod Carey's turn to pick up the pieces. Carey, who went 52-30 during his six years at Northern Illinois, was introduced at another press conference Friday. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)

ASSOCIATED PRESS

Wearing a bright red-and-white striped tie at his introductory—and as it turned out, only—press conference as Temple football coach, Manny Diaz delivered a 20-minute soliloquy explaining how he had turned down previous opportunities until now. Only after doing careful research and consultation did he determine this was the right place for him and his family.

Then Diaz stopped talking long enough to take questions while continuing to pledge his loyalty to the Cherry-and-White, before going out to hit the recruiting trail.

December 30, 17 days later all that Temple loyalty disappeared. Only hours after Miami’s Mark Richt, Diaz’ boss when he was defensive coordinator the previous three years in Coral Gables, unexpectedly resigned, the Hurricanes were proud to announce his replacement: Welcome home, Manny Diaz!

Besides being a slap in the face to a program still getting over a 56-27 drubbing in the Independence Bowl under interim coach Ed Foley, the embarrassed Owls suddenly became a national punch line. The only consolation was the $4 million Diaz and Miami had to cough up to buy him out of his contract.

That came on top of Geoff Collins’ $2.5 million buyout when he abruptly left after two years for his own dream job at Georgia Tech, where he’d twice worked as an assistant. For the second time in three years that left Foley to pick up the pieces of a departed coach (Matt Rhule left in 2016 for Baylor) for the bowl game, while the Temple hierarchy scrambled to find a replacement.

Or so they thought.

As for their players, some of whom will now be listening to their—get this—fifth coach since they arrived on campus when you include Diaz and Foley, they were just getting over the Collins move when this all went down.

You can forgive them, then, if they don’t immediately embrace the latest new guy, Rod Carey, who was introduced to the media yesterday in a scene athletic director Pat Kraft reminded him of the Bill Murray character in “Groundhog Day.” The only thing missing was hearing Sonny & Cher singing “I Got You Babe” rather than the band playing the Temple Fight Song.

For his part Carey said all the right things, after Temple president Richard Engler and Kraft finished lauding him and their school in what was essentially a pep rally, glossing over the past month’s chain of events as much as possible. Of course had you closed your eyes you might’ve thought you were still listening to Diaz.

But unlike his less-than-three-week predecessor, the 47-year-old Carey, who compiled a 52-30 record in six years at Northern Illinois, including two Mid-American Conference titles, pretty much promised he intends to stick around for awhile. According to several sources he’s agreed to a $10 million buyout over the first two years and $8 million the third year of his reported six-year contract, which will pay him around $2 million annually. Adding up those numbers alone that’s enough reason to stay put.

But clearly Temple needs some stability after what’s transpired. It’s one thing to be considered a stepping stone school, with Al Golden (Miami) Steve Addazio (Boston College), Rhule and Collins all leaving for a Power 5 Conference after various levels of success on N. Broad St.. It’s another to be a doormat, which—hefty buyout aside-- is how it looks in the wake of the Diaz fiasco.

And that doesn’t even factor in the message to potential recruits. What parent is going to believe a coach’s promises that he’ll make his or her son not only a better player but a better man when they can’t even trust he’ll be there for the long haul? Why should those players initially recruited by Collins, then re-committed to Diaz in time to sign national letters of intent, have any faith Carey has their best interests at heart?

“Gaining trust the first thing is you have to be honest with somebody and they have to be honest with you,” explained Carey, who plans to recruit within what he called a “three-hour circumference” of Temple, as well as nationally. “You take it one day at a time.

“But I’ve been this guy before. I was the third coach in three years at NIU when I took the job Yes, I was the offensive coordinator for two of those years. But the guys on defense didn’t know me.

"The only difference is here I’ve got to get to know both sides of the ball.”

Well, maybe not the only difference. Carey takes over an 8-5 program that just went to a bowl game for a school record fourth straight season and returns a decent number of starters, including quarterback Anthony Russo.

But there will be natural skepticism whether he can pick up where Rhule and Collins left off, compounded by those wondering if he, too, is only here to build his resume. “I told Dr. Kraft as we were going through this to put in whatever buyout you want,” said Carey, who played center on three bowl teams at Indiana, before beginning his coaching career at Minnesota, followed by Wisconsin-Stout, Illinois State and North Dakota. “I don’t care That’s not important to me..

“What’s important to me is I want to be here and the track record I have is proven. Not to be boastful, but I said no other times to other jobs when I was at NIU.

“But this is the right job, right time , right place and I am super excited about that.”

Yes, Manny Diaz said pretty much the same thing word for word just about a month ago—and Temple is just beginning to wipe the egg of its face from that. So Owls' players and fans will just have to wait and see.